Gender and Violence in Sakuraba Kazuki’s Red X Pink:
Gender and Violence in Sakuraba Kazuki’s Red X Pink:

Hearing Female and Transgender Voices in Boys-Oriented Light Novels

Author(s): Rafael Vinícius Martins
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Studies of Literature, Sociology of Literature
Published by: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci
Keywords: gender studies; light novel; Japanese contemporary literature; database consumption theory; otaku subculture;
Summary/Abstract: Sakuraba Kazuki is a former light novel writer whose literature shows awareness of issues of gender, with narratives about violence, power, and identity. This chapter provides an analysis of her light novel, Red x Pink, a story narrated by three pro­tagonists who participate in a girls’ clandestine wrestling show, each of them performing a different type of character: the youthful Mayu, the dominatrix Miko, and the boyish Satsuki, whose narrative arc unveils a process of self-discovery and coming out as a transgendered man. The analysis of this work, informed by Azuma Hiroki’s concepts of database consumption and manga/anime-like realism, will clarify how Sakuraba expresses the gendered experiences of violence and exposes the consequences of oppression, appropriating the popular form of male-oriented media to narrate stories of oppressed young women and sexual minorities.

• Details
• Contents